Standards Development

Scope

This document describes the metadata for data papers, focusing on format and elements. This document applies to the description, curation, publication, sharing services of data papers and their associated datasets.

Purpose

1. Purpose

This document aims to establish a unified international standard for data paper metadata amid global digital transformation and open science advancement. It defines uniform metadata formats and element requirements covering the full lifecycle of data papers and associated datasets (description, management, publication, sharing), aiming to regulate global data paper development, improve scientific data circulation efficiency, unlock data element value, and support open science and data sharing—fully aligning with ISO standardization core objectives.

2. Necessity

As a novel academic carrier centered on research datasets, data papers are the critical link for data resource communication and value realization, making their standardization irreplaceably necessary. Driven by surging market demand and pressing industry problems, developing this document is highly imperative:

1) Unique value positioning: Fills gaps of traditional documents, provides a standardized carrier for scientific data sharing, preservation and reuse, resolving data discoverability, accessibility and reusability pain points.

2) Rapid global growth: Widely adopted by international and Chinese journals since 2014, with explosive publication growth; AI4S surge further boosts demand for standardized data papers across disciplines.

3) Prominent industry problems: Fragmented metadata formats, incomplete elements, weak dataset linkage, and low researcher data-sharing willingness hinder knowledge services and AI application.

4) Urgent international need: Scattered global practices, no unified cross-border norms, and lack of mutual recognition create barriers to open science, requiring ISO-led standardization.

3. Gap Analysis

Current standards and national practices have critical limitations, failing to meet data paper metadata standardization needs, with clear gaps:

1) International standards lack adaptability: ISO 4 only regulates title abbreviations; DDI is limited to social sciences with incomplete elements; ISO 19115 and ISO 23081 apply only to specific fields, not directly usable for data papers.

2) National practices lack coordination: Most national guidelines are institutional internal norms, with no unified full-process standards or cross-border mutual recognition, causing systemic fragmentation.

4. Value

This document delivers significant practical and strategic value for global open science and AI4S development:

1) Practical application value: Unifies metadata formats/elements, improves data sharing efficiency, reduces operational costs, clarifies data ownership, lowers sharing thresholds, and supports AI4S technology deployment.

2) Global strategic value: Breaks cross-border data barriers, promotes standard mutual recognition, optimizes global scientific data allocation, upgrades academic publishing standardization, and underpins sustainable tech innovation.

5. Basis

(1) Resolutions of ISO/TC46 meeting (May 2025)

Resolution 2025/09 - New area of work - Data Papers: TC 46 resolves to Encourage SAC representatives to work with the leadership of ISO TC 46/SC 4 and ISO TC 46/SC 9 to develop and submit two new work item proposals on the topic of data papers based on the new SAC national standard for data papers.

(2) Progress made on the basis of the draft proposal (October 2025) following the Resolution of TC46 Following a meeting between Chinese colleagues and the chairpersons of ISO/TC46/SC4 and SO/TC46/SC9 at the end of October 2025, the possibility to create a joint working group to develop the standards for data papers has been established.

(3) Basis on national standards from China

SAC strongly supports the progression of this work item as the two proposals were based on two Chinese national standards

Detailed materials are attached as Annex 1.